The tranquil mountain path was seemingly blanketed in a sheet of brilliant white snow, the sun's rays shone down onto the white carpet, as the crystals reflected the light in the colors of a rainbow, the snow slowly fell down with a brilliant blue sky above.
Per chance it was these sights, the white snow field, the big blue which caused the canary to fly around its birdcage with new found vigor, seeing these sights must have wrought up the feelings of want within the creature who'd seen nothing other than the roof of its cage its entire life, it thrashed the bars, for the first time in its life i didn't just want, it needed, it felt as though if this need wasn't fulfilled a deep and heavy emptiness with settle in its heart and it would slowly perish.
It needed it, it needed to fly to soar to see these hills covered in white snow, which shown with the myriad colors of a rainbow, it was its desire, its instinct to survive, and so its flapped it wings hitting over and over and over against the bars of the bird cage excitement turning to desperation as it found nothing but the bars of its cage, no matter how much it wanted the cage stayed closed.
The desperation slowly began its natural transition to grief; however this natural transition was interrupted by the cold wind, as the canary turned to look, to see the cage opened, letting the cold winter wind inside, the bird given the opportunity of a lifetime , didn't hesitate or waste time thinking as it flew into the vast sky.
In pumped it wings with fervor feeling the wing pierce through its feathers and through his hollow bones , it looked up at the sun and the big blue sky , it looked down at the great landscape down below, if it were human it surely let out a loud cackle and proclaim the sky to be his, proclaim the land to be his, and even lay claim to great heaven's above, to truly see the myriad wonders of this world.
The canary in its fantasies didn't notice his wings becoming heavier and heavier with each flap , it was only when he landed onto the snow that he came to know that his wings had become as hard and brittle as diamonds, white ice forming in between his wings ,it tried again and again to flap its wings to see flight again but was unable.
As it crawled on the snow with in feet , it slowly felt it , , the white ice spreaking all over his body like a plauge , the life draining from his body as if a hungry animal had entered his i and was consuming his warmth, his life , it's struggle continued but the struggle only seemed to amuse this beast, his invisible assassin, by the time he knew it was already to late , it raised its head , his entire body had come as hard as diamond , it looked at the great vast sky above , it let out a weak song filled with it sorrow , it had wanted to see so much more.
Then it moved no more becoming as still and solid as a sculptor, the snow fell around it as if wanting to bury this tragedy as fast as it could as was its nature , the silence perhaps providing respect to the creature who had flown to heights other could only ever dream off.
Then a loud roaring interrupted the peace and shattered the picturesque visage.
"The bird is dead!!!, turn on your suits and keep movin we ain't got all day" the jarring voice belonged to a human, he wore a heavy outfit which covered every part of his body from the tip of his nose to his filthy toe nails , he stood in front of several others who wore the same and the same colors , red blue and green the colors of humanity's final empire however despite them all wearing the same outfit , it was from the accolades on the mans "suit" that he was of much higher rank than the others within the unit.
Following his instruction , the men all reached for their vambrace cranking the notch to present a full 90 degrees as their helmets shone with an ominous and unnerving orange hue, as they continued their march , as they did one of the soldiers stepped onto the canary's frozen cadavar, it shattered like glass , the sound was lost in the cacophony of laboured footsteps
....
"Oy v the last canary died , so.... this means we can head back right? i can go back to my jess right? ahh~~ she must still be waiting for me my sweet"
Loud groaning noises were made across the platoon , it was to be expected , Joel had been on this hill for the past few weeks ever since this expedition started , he talked about his dearest fiance jess when ever he could , when he ate with the others , when he slept , and when he washed himself in the morning and put his armor suit on , this had been the greatest annoyance for the platoon the entire trip , the reason mostly being that Joel was the only lucky bastard among them to actually be married , someone was waiting for him back in the dark , bleak underground, when he went back home, the men imagined he'd get a home cooked meal , and spend then night in her arms.
This envy was what led to Joel eating scarps by himself , led to him sleeping in the coldest most isolated part of the enclosure , and him having to put the complicated armor suit on by himself and triple check everything so the concentrated energy dosen't cook like a piece of meat i furnace , and Joel was no fool to this , citizen's of the underground were as well aquanted with dark nature of "humanity" as could be.
But Joel didn't care , he spoke of it as often as he did to remind himself what he was fighting a home for his wife and his unborn child , for their sakes he had to be brave and even more for their sakes he had to come home alive.
"Oy V!!" he spoke again to the taciturn figure next to him his voice betraying his excitement and imaptience , these last few months V was the only person who didn't chew him out , mostly because he was the silent type and an outcast like he was, a passerby might say they were bottling up their emotion and waiting to explode one day , but after spending so much time with his silent companion Joel could tell he wasn't annoyed , not that he "Could" tell what he was feeling.
As Joel asked his question again , V turned around almost mechanically as the visor of his helmet glowed from the heating agent's within the suit , not a single trace of humanity showed itself throw that thick body armour , it was in moment's like these where it was hard to tell weather V was really a human or a beast in human skin that Joel felt the most terror.
Joel waited for his answer, thinking the silence V's presence had created would last till the end of time, untill finally V's voice a emotionless but smooth voice entered joel's ear.
"No" V stated, "There is one more left."
A quizical expression took hold of Joel's face. "But i don't count any more left in the cages, and yes, i am very much sure of my count. dont question me , you weren't the one who had to feed the damn things and clean their shit"
"It's not in one of the cages," V stated matter-of-factly
"Huh? but canaries can't survive the white waves,!!" Joel stated even more confused that before.
"You'll find out soon enough , don't stay still any longer your joints are freezing up" V stated before following the platoon.
Joel's eyes widened underneath his helmet as he looked down at his knees, there was indeed a bit of white frost building up , he groaned before jerking his knees, breaking the layer of white ice, the sound of akin to glass breaking, reaching his ear, as he turned, looking at his silent companion.
"Agh one of these days's ill get a grip on you, count on it, count on me , V"
The Expedition was meeting its end 3 months had elapsed since the expedition began.